'Normal women' replace size-zero models in German magazine

London, January 04 (ANI): German fashion magazine Brigitte has come up with its first issue using amateur models after banning professionals following complaints and criticism from its readers.

In October last year, the 700,000-circulation magazine had promised to stop featuring size-zero models.

Many readers had protested that they could not relate to models with "protruding bones".

The editor of the magazine, Andreas Lebert, even admitted that the models on Brigitte used to be so thin that they often had to "fatten them up" using Photoshop.

However, the magazine announced that it would snap "normal women" on its pages in future.

"It is not a question of them suddenly becoming models. They simply step out of their normal lives for a moment and present fashion for us as personalities," the Independent quoted Lebert as saying.

A total of 20,000 women put themselves forward after the "normal women as models" campaign was announced.

Sybille Zschaber, history teacher at a Hamburg grammar school, is one of the few who have made it.

Zschaber has been made to look like late German actress Marlene Dietrich in the January issue. (ANI)